in England, he was superseded in his government of Ireland by Charles Blount, eighth lord Mountjoy [q. v.], who succeeded brilliantly where Essex had failed deplorably. Elizabeth lived to hear that the Irish rebellion had been brought to an end, but the formal submission of Tyrone came too late — it was made not to her, but to her successor.
The glory of Elizabeth's reign began to wane with the scattering of the Armada. She had won a position in European politics which none could venture to disregard. At home things were not what they had been. There was far less splendour in her court, its tone was lowered. A certain air of dulness, even of vulgarity, slowly crept over the very pageants and masques and festivities which were presented as homage to her majesty from year to year. Even Spenser's genius could not rise above affectation in addressing her in 1590, and when next year the lake at Cowdray was dragged, and the net emptied at her feet with a very prosaic oration, foolery could hardly go lower. The queen visited Oxford for the second time in 1592; the proceedings were drearily dull, there was no enthusiasm, no gaiety. Very different were the drolleries which were exhibited before her by the gentlemen of Gray's Inn in 1594; then the fun was of the broadest, the jokes and language lavishly coarse, even to grossness. Nevertheless these fantastic entertainments were kept up to the very last. Against the advice of her council she persisted in paying her accustomed visits to the houses of the nobility in the winter of 1602, and it was probably the pitiless north-east wind which prevailed in January 1603, and to which she exposed herself with her usual imprudence, that brought on her last illness. Of all that remarkable band of men who served her so loyally in the times of trial and danger, Thomas Sackville, lord Buckhurst, alone survived her. Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick, Leicester's elder brother, and Sir Francis Walsingham died in 1590, Sir Christopher Hatton in 1591, the rugged old Lord Hunsdon and his brother-in-law. Sir Francis Knollys [q. v.], in 1596. Elizabeth made immense demands upon her ministers. It may be doubted whether any of those who enjoyed her greatest favour (with the single exception of Leicester) were at all the richer for their devotion to her person. Walsingham and Hatton died insolvent, Burghley's patrimony was very little increased by all his preferments, and the rivalries in the splendour of the entertainment offered crippled more than one of the wealthiest of the nobility. All this prodigal display was slowly but surely tending to weaken the aristocracy. The wealth of the merchants was rapidly growing, the moneyed class was steadily gaining power. Elizabeth saw what was coming, but she did not love the commons; she was always averse to summon a parliament, and never did so until she was compelled.
Parliament, indeed, was called together only thirteen times in more than forty-four years. During the last thirteen years of her reign it assembled thrice, viz. in 1592, 1597, and 1601. When the house had voted supplies, the sooner it was dissolved the better. It is evident that Elizabeth was in some anxiety as to how the parliament of 1592- 1593 would behave, and when the lord-keeper, Puckering, delivered his opening address, he expressly warned the members that they were not expected to make new laws, for there were enough of them already, but to provide for the present necessities. When there arose a discussion upon the question whether all recusants, whatever their creed, should be treated alike, and a stormy religious debate seemed imminent, the queen promptly interposed. Thereupon, as if to console themselves for being silenced where they would have preferred to speak, or to show their dissatisfaction, the members argued this time on the subject of the triple subsidy and the tenths and fifteenths that were asked for. Sir Robert Cecil declared that the last subsidies of 1589 had only yielded 280,000l., against which the queen had spent from her own exchequer 1,030,000l. in defensive wars (D'Ewes, p. 483); but the house was either in no good humour or was badly handled, and the vote was only agreed to, and the bill passed after a debate which extended over the unprecedented time of eleven days (ib. p. 507). Five years later parliament voted supplies upon the same scale without demur, but during the session an address to the queen was drawn up, protesting against 'the enormous abuse of monopolies.' Just before the dissolution Elizabeth replied through Lord-keeper Egerton with an appeal to 'her loving and dutiful subjects' not to encroach on her prerogative. We are left to infer that the money vote of 1597 was granted, in part at least, 'for the speedy payment of the queen's majesty's debts. In the last parliament some difficulty was experienced. The ground taken by Cecil in 1601 for asking for fresh subsidies was that the Spaniards had landed a force in Ireland. If they are attacked at once, said the practical secretary, it will cost us 100,000l.; if we allow them to be reinforced, it will cost us half a million. So the money was voted. But the question of monopolies again came to the front, and it was proposed, in view of the
